


True Heroism

by LadyAnneNeville



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Heroism, Natasha Romanov Is Not A Robot, Natasha Romanov-centric, Protective Natasha Romanov, Rape Aftermath
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-02-20
Packaged: 2019-11-01 11:49:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17866706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyAnneNeville/pseuds/LadyAnneNeville
Summary: Natasha Romanov finds herself in an unknown situation as she guides a young woman through the aftermath of a terrifying assault.





	True Heroism

“Miss Romanov, there is a young lady in the lobby asking to see you. She appears to be in distress and could be injured.” Jarvis voice came from the ceiling of the training room interrupting the Avenger’s morning workout. 

Natasha flung Clint to the mats and stood panting slightly. 

“Bit early for visitors isn’t it?” Clint asked. “Booty call, perhaps?” He teased.

“Jarvis, do you know who it is?” Natasha asked as she wiped off some of her sweat with a towel.

“No, I have never encountered this individual before. She appears to be a teenager aged thirteen or fourteen, and does not seem to present a threat. As I said, she is in some distress.”

Natasha frowned, thinking it over.

“Jarvis, you don’t normally let us know when random teenagers come to the tower trying to meet an avenger.” Natasha probed.

“Yes, a wise policy, however I felt an exception was merited this time.” Natasha and Clint glanced at each other, and Natasha made a decision.

“Send her up to the common floor, keep an eye on her, and ask her to wait. Ask the others to leave her alone until I get there, unless there is a problem. I will shower and change and join her in about fifteen minutes.”

“Very good Miss Romanov, I will communicate your decision to reception.”

Natasha wasn’t quite sure what she’d expected when she returned to the common area, but it wasn’t this. The teenager was slightly overweight and slightly spotty, but her features were pretty enough. She was wearing a baggy black hoodie and tracksuit bottoms with trainers that looked as if they had seen better days. Her fingers were slightly blackened from ink. She had clearly been crying and looked terrified. She jumped to her feet as Natasha entered. Natasha put on her most comforting, calming mask and smiled at the girl.

“Sit down, please. Jarvis said you wanted to see me.” The girl sat and nodded.

“Would you like a drink, some tea perhaps or water? You look a bit too young for coffee.” The girl shook her head, she seemed to be trembling.

“I’m sorry I don’t know where to begin.” The private school accent took Natasha by surprise.

“We could start with your name.”

“Amy.”

“Okay, Amy, this clearly isn’t a social call, or some kind of fan visit, so why don’t you tell me why you’re here.”

“I wanted to know how you did it. How you survived. How it’s possible to… “ A sob build up in Amy’s throat and she struggled to hold it back, perhaps she was in some kind of shock. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to bring it up.” 

“It’s okay, what exactly are you referring to.” Natasha probed. She suddenly had an uneasy feeling that she knew what had happened to this girl.

“I read the article, in the New York Times about…”

“It’s okay, I know what you mean now.” Natasha reassured Amy. The New York Times had been one of many newspapers digging through the released shield files, but this particular journalist had brought into the mainstream details of a brutal mission that had gone very wrong. Natasha had been raped several times and beaten almost to the point of death before Clint had come in all guns blazing and rescued her. A point he liked to bring up whenever she pointed out that normally it was her rescuing him. It was an unusual mission where she couldn’t rescue herself. The article painted her as a survivor of sexual assault, which was true, but also for her unremarkable as in the red room they had been trained to endure sex as though it had no more emotional significance than a handshake. It had also painted her as some kind of feminist hero who had reframed her narrative and become a hero. She wasn’t convinced by it, but it had certainly worked in her favour to boost public opinion. Natasha thought carefully about how to approach this.

“When did it happen?” She asked quietly.

“This morning.” Amy said, emotion cracking her voice. Natasha realised that this would need to be handled very carefully indeed. “It was probably stupid but I didn’t know where else to go. I couldn’t face my parents after…”

There was silence for a moment.

“Do your parents know where you are now?” Natasha asked quietly.

“No, I came straight here from my paper round.” Amy said. She seemed calmer now.

“And how old are you?” Natasha asked.

“Sixteen.” Amy replied. Not as young as Natasha had feared, not that age really made that much of a difference when dealing with something like this.

“Amy, I want to help you, but I need you to tell me what happened.” Amy looked at here, looking utterly startled.

“He had been following me on my paper round for a while. He trying to be nice to me I think. I thought it was strange, but he had a foreign accent so I wasn’t sure if it was just a cultural difference. He was maybe forty, maybe a little older. I was polite to him, I didn’t want to be rude, but then he kept appearing. Not every day though. A couple of times he tried to kiss me and I dodged it. I asked his name and he said he was called Mr Khan. I didn’t give him my name though, I said it was Charlotte because it’s my middle name and I panicked. He started trying to give my chocolate bars but I always said no thank you. Then this morning… I don’t know why I didn’t scream for help or push him away, I just froze. It hurt so much, I’ve never felt anything like it. I should have done something more. Then when it was over I was just so scared because I still had papers to deliver. So even though it hurt I kept going and delivered the rest of the papers. Because of the pain I was a lot slower than usual and I knew my dad would just shout at me for being late and I didn’t know how to tell him. Then I thought of you and the article and I wasn’t far from Avengers tower so I came here. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come.” 

All of Amy’s words came out in an awful rush and then she burst into tears. Natasha hesitated a moment before gathering Amy in her arms and letting her sob it out into her shoulder. As she was holding her she saw Tony begin to drift in from the direction of his workshop, he had probably been working there all night and didn’t know what time it was. She made eye contact and shook here head subtly. He looked confused but disappeared back towards his workshop.

Eventually the sobs petered out and Natasha was left stroking the hair of the girl who had somehow gone from sobbing into her shoulder to half lying on the sofa with her head on her lap.

“Okay Amy. The first thing we need to do is let your parents know where you are, they’re probably worried sick.” Amy nodded.

“Do I have to be the one to tell them?” She asked, suddenly seeming a lot younger than sixteen.

“Not if you don’t want to be.” Natasha replied gently. “The next step is for you to go down to medical floor for an examination. I know you probably don’t want to think about it, but if you ever want to press charges it’s useful to have the evidence. You did exactly the right thing in telling someone so promptly. You need to be checked out for the sake of your own health. I will be there every step of the way if you want me to be, and if you don’t want me to be, or want your parents there instead then I will sort that out.”

“Could you?” Amy didn’t look at all sure of herself. Natasha nodded.

“Of course.” She said. 

The hours that followed were uncomfortable, Natasha was projecting confidence but she didn’t really know what she was doing or why Amy had picked her of all people. Natasha knew Tony had watched the footage of her conversation with Amy when a set of clothes in the girls size, including a size medium sports bra so as not to be too creepy had arrived towards the end of the examination. Natasha had let the girl shower in her own apartment, and had called the girls parents, who had been told a very abbreviated version of the mornings events and filled them in. Both were currently at work but would be by that evening, not really understanding why Amy didn’t want to see them, but wanting to give her space.

As Amy emerged, showered and dressed in the new clothes Tony sent a request via Jarvis to see them both on his floor.

Natasha quietly shepherded Amy up the tower, feeling somehow protective and attached despite having only met her that morning. When they arrived Tony was there, rested and cleaner than he had been during his brief appearance that morning.

He smiled, and Natasha could see that he was doing that gentle approachable thing he did when children approached him for an autograph.

“Hi Amy, I’m Tony.” Amy blushed scarlet.

“I know who you are Dr Stark, we study the basic principles behind arc reactor technology in physics class.” Tony’s eyebrows raised.

“Really, where do you go to school?” Amy mumbled the name of a very competitive all girls school and an explanation that she was there on scholarship.

“But I’m a drama scholar, I’m better at arts than sciences.” She said.

“Everyone has their niche.” Tony responded. “The arts are vital, where would we be without music or design? Besides all the great scientists or inventors are creative by necessity.” Amy smiled politely, still unsure.

“You’ll be wondering why I asked you here.” Tony stated rather than asked. Amy nodded warily.

“Well firstly I need to tell you that if anything happens in my tower that I want to know about, or is unusual, or Jarvis, my AI thinks I should know then I am always informed. So, I know what happened to you. Don’t worry, I didn’t watch the medical exam, that is private.” Tony had somehow stumbled into a slight awkwardness. He was so suarve with the press it was sometimes easy to overlook the fact that Tony wasn’t always brilliant at interpersonal relationships.

Amy looked mildly alarmed, the deer in the headlights look coming back.

“Your parents are on their way and your school has been informed that there was an assault and you will be off for the rest of the week at least, but not the nature of that assault. We have never quite had a situation like this before where a civilian has come to us for help after an attack of this nature, but I want to assure you that we will support you. You may continue your medical care with Dr Frank and her team at no charge to you, and I will also make one of the therapists who provide for the avengers staff available to you, again at no charge. I would strongly urge you to talk to someone who is a professional, Natasha is fantastic but she isn’t trained in mental health care, so a professional could probably help you even more. Based on the evidence you gave Natasha, we believe we have identified the individual who attacked you, although you will need to identify them in a line up should you want to press charges. If you do, you will have the full might of the avengers behind you both to get you justice and protect your anonymity.”

“Thank you.” Amy replied, overwhelmed and unable to make a reply.

When Amy’s parents arrived a few hours later, they were able to facilitate a conversation. Amy never did end up pressing charges, just wanting to put the incident behind her, however Natasha stayed in touch occasionally and happened to let slip that the man responsible for the assault on her had been arrested for an unrelated offence for aggravated assault and would be in prison for at least 20 years, probably more, then it was a comfort, but not a pressure. 

Having a mentor like Black Widow was in some ways completely bizarre, but it enabled Amy to begin to recover, and inspired her to realise that full recovery was possible. A few years later, when #MeToo was trending everywhere and the internet exploded at a simple tweet from Tony Stark, which just read Me Too, without the hashtag, Amy remembered his kindness and suddenly understood it in a new light.

What happened to her never went away, but Amy learned to live with it, and learned not to let it define her, and perhaps that was the best she could do.

**Author's Note:**

> Sadly much of Amy’s account in the story is autobiographical, although it happened to me nearly a decade ago now. In some ways I have put it behind me, but in others I am still recovering. I haven’t been able to allow myself to trust a romantic partner enough to make the leap and have sex with them, which has been toxic to the few romantic relationships I have had. At the time I told no one, after my miscarriage I told no one, even though I really should have gone to a doctor. I finally confided in a friend at the age of 21. I wish there had been a hero like Natasha Romanov there for me to turn to. Instead what actually happened was I went back home, was yelled at by my dad for being late, went to school, and tried to kill myself four times over the next few years. I already had depression when this happened, I think it just made it worse. I also changed the city as I live in the north of England. Thank you everyone for reading. It took a lot of courage to post this, but I was in a class last week where we talked about Harvey Weinstein and the #metoo movement, established that what happened there is still prevalent in Hollywood, and the majority male class went on to conclude that the #metoo movement had gone too far. As a survivor of sexual assault I found that really difficult to deal with, and ended up crying on the train home. It got to a point where I needed to tell my story, and the only way I could do that was by making everything around it, including the entire aftermath, fictional with fictional characters and publishing it on a completely anonymous platform. Please tell me what you think, if you have something kind to say. I wish I had a hero like Natasha when it happened to me, but knowing myself at sixteen even had she existed in real life, I’m unlikely to have been able to approach her, so in that sense, Amy has the bravery I wish I had but don’t. Apologies for any spelling and grammar errors but I realised that if I didn’t post it the moment I finished it I would probably lose the nerve required to do so.


End file.
